Monday, October 21, 2013

Underdevelopment in the Philippines

by B.P. Familara (2013)

We live in a country that is struggling to rise from the ashes of poverty. A country that was exploited by the whites for the last four hundred years and undergone a series of wars. We were educated far beyond what is needed for development. Spaniards tough us to be afraid of the friars, memorize prayers, and live with the gospels of the saints. Americans, indeed help us to uplift the kind of life we have today. They introduced public education system that was patterned to them. They make sure that the Filipinos are educated according to their will. The downside of this is that, they miseducate us. They let us forget who we are and forcibly change our customs.

Americans flooded our country by their products and spare no one in making their local business to grow. We became a country of buyers wherein we buy more that we produce. Our economy used to be very dependent to the economy of America, but this path slowly fades nowadays.

On the past centuries, the pillars of economy and socio-political have collapsed that makes the gap between rich and poor wider. The rich becomes richer while the poor becomes poorer.  If we illustrate, we could draw a triangle divided into three. The upper is the rich  /BILL PATRICK FAMILAR (c) /people, the middle is the working class, and the bottoms are the urban and rural poor. The unequal distribution of wealth in our country affects great to the development of our economy. The amount of assets that our economy produces is not enough to follow the level of sophistication of the technology that is being used by the mainstream. The result of this is that our locally made product cannot compete to the world market due to the durability and price differences, imported good often cheaper than homegrown / locally produced goods, that often resulting to bankruptcy of local businesses.

This event creates a vicious circle or what other may say, poverty trap. We study hard, but when we graduate there are lesser opportunities on the field that can be found in our country. It is for the reason that we have a mismatch labor force in our society. We produce more scholastic graduates like accountants, engineers, nurses, and ITs but what our country really needs are the skilled labor force that can easily fit in to the needs of in the country and overseas.

History and Underdevelopment

 By B.P. Familara (2013)

After World War 2, most of the countries in Asia, America and European countries were destroyed. Far East Asia and the Pacific territories were greatly affected as the bombing persist decades long. Major cities were bombed like Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor and Manila. Korea and Vietnam were in great tension when the spread of communism spreads and civil wars broke in. This was the darkest time in eastern and south eastern part of Asia.

Before the war, there were only few countries developed faster in terms of economy; Japan who leads in Asian industrialization, China who leads in wide range trade across Asia, Europe and Americas and Philippines that has a strong tight to its central government, the United States.

Philippines used to be one of the most powerful countries in Asia next to Japan. Korea was stocked on a very traditional country as well as Vietnam and Thailand. After the mass destruction of the main cities and the collapsed of the economic foundation resulted by the aftermath of the war, each countries had a hard time to re-establish it. Series of trials of different economic ideals and theories were tried. Some, closed its doors to the world and some let it opened so many foreign direct investments would come to aid the large scarce of the resource, the funds.

During Marcos time, The Philippines was one of the leading countries that can cope up and re-established its economic foundations. With the help of his wife, got very strong ties to the Arab countries that main product is oil. He successfully invited many foreign investors and the economy float.

Fifty years have passed; this was altered when series of unhealthy government and weak governance took over the country. The Philippines was left behind from its neighboring country. China, South Korea and Japan are now the largest manufacturers of electronic devices that is being used around the world. Thailand and Vietnam surpasses Philippines in terms of Economic advancement which are still stocked on agricultural economy.

There are many factors to consider why this event happened. First, the culture, does the history of the country affects the attitudes of the people? My answer is yes. It is because for almost 400 years, the Philippines were under many colonizers like Spain, Britain, Japan and America. We were taught to be workers and the idealism of pwede na yan were e inculcated to our mind that hinders perseverance in terms of development.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

PH’s Economic Development History

by Bill Patrick Familara (2013)

Long before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippine archipelago, the natives have already a socio-political and economic system. Tribes are trading to each other and the foreign relations have been established as free trade is already being done with the neighboring kingdoms and empires like China, Indochina and people from Malay Archipelago. This is in the form of a barter system. In Barter system, people do not use notes and/ or currency to exchange goods and services. What they do is exchanging a good that has the same value to other. For example, I will trade my carabao to you in exchange of 15 sacks of rice. This kind of economic system have been used until the late 1600 when the Kingdom of Spain finally took control on the Philippine Archipelago but limited to the Kingdom of Sulu that was reigned until 1962.
When the Kingdom of Spain successfully took over the archipelago, they established an economic system that brought progress and growth to the colony’s economy. The Manila- Acapulco Galleon Trade opened new opportunities to the Indios to acquire new knowledge and skills. This Galleon trade last until 1815 when the Mexican War of Independence put a permanent stop to the galleon trade route. This marked the first time trade truly became global, wherein Asian goods /BILL PATRICK FAMILARA (c)/ were sold to Latin America. It's the first instance in human history when all trade-routes across the planet interlinked, arguably making Manila the world's first Global City and the Manila Galleon route the prototype for global trade.

During the time of the galleon trade, Manila was exclusively trading its goods to Acapulco and limited to the rest of the world. When the Kingdom of Spain was defeated by the British Kingdom, Manila opens its trade to the world market. Thus, the exchange of goods and services expands to the rest of the world. That we could see Manila as the only progressive city in Las Islas Filipinas for the reason that the existence of Hacienda system is being observed and the monopoly of a certain product like Tobacco, Corn and Sugar cane are the only products being produced in the large part of the Filipina Archipelago. This kind of system hinders to the economic development of the provinces.

After the Treaty of Paris, The Republica de Filipinas fall under the control of the United States and successfully established new and modern economic system, adapting what is being used in European and American countries. United States flooded the Filipino Market by their products. They redressed the Philippines from a medieval like society into Americanized one. They introduced more diverse and free trade but limited to the United States market.

After World War 2, The Philippines finally got its independence to the United States. But this time, the capital city was fully devastated by the war. The economy of the newly recognized country had collapsed. And the role of the government is to re-established to fundamental pillars of the economy.
In Marcos time, The Philippines was considered as one of the most progressive country in terms of economy next to Japan. The Bagong Lipunan trend was introduced and said “Ang Pilipinas ay Muling Dadakila”. He established strong foreign economic relations to the far eastern or West Asian countries. Thus, strong foreign direct investments were put in the country’s economy. Series of building new infrastructures like bridges, roads, convention centers, trains helped allot especially on the issue of unemployment when thousands of Filipinos were employed that time.

After what they so-called successful peaceful revolution, Cory Aquino was proclaimed as the new president of the republic. On her time, the economy of the country was freeze. Series of insurgences occurred that resulted to the collapsed of the basic economic foundations of the country. That time, the whole archipelago undergone on a dark age like period.

Nowadays, after the former president Gloria Macapagal Aroyo successfully rebuild and re-established the fundamentals of the Philippine economy. The current presedent is in easy term on facilitating and keeping this track into a good way.


(sorry for grammatical errors)